Regency or Ruin: The 25th Amendment, Trump the Chaos-Monkey, & Zero Adult Supervision of the Use of American Power
What happens when a government built for grown-ups finds itself governed by the credulous and the credulous alone? And the Republican Party Grandees do not have the mojo and the ovaries to stage an adult intervention? We are finding out. It is not good…
The American presidency was designed for the competent—yet we find ourselves ruled by a man who believes the last thing he hears, no matter how fantastical. And so Donald Trump’s “foreign policy” reflects only the sycophancy of those closest to him—and is the chaotic product of a president whose memory has deep-sixed all knowledge of the hot stove he touched yesterday. Impeachment, the 25th Amendment, a regency—there ought to be options. But with no George Shultz or Howard Baker waiting in the wings and with uniquely cowardly Republican Grandees, no improvement is possible.
This is not merely a Trump problem; it is a systemic failure, a sign that the institutions designed to constrain presidential incapacity are themselves in crisis. The addled president is repeatedly outwitted by his own courtiers—each new betrayal a surprise, each new lie a revelation. So here we are, very predictably.
And so now we have Donald Trump, with a dawning realization that Binyamin Netanyahu lied to him when he told him “you do one, and then we all can be done”. He is not reacting well:
Andy Carvin: ‘We are truly through the looking glass now:
Tim O’Conner: ‘It hardly needs to be said, but if Biden had so visibly lost the plot and all self-control, CNN would already be melting its way through to the earth’s core: ((Tendar))): “Trump is excusing Iran for the missile strike (“perhaps the missile landed by mistake”) this morning and blaming Israel for the latest escalation. He ends the statement in an emotional way:
Donald Trump: ‘They have violated it, but Israel violated it too…. Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs on the likes of which I had never seen before. The biggest load that we have seen. I’m not happy with Israel. You now, when I say “you have twelve hours”, you don’t go out and in the first hour drop everything you have. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really not happy with it if Israel’s going out this morning. Because the rocket. That didn't land. That was shot by mistake. That didn’t land. I’m not happy with that…. You know what? We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing. You understand that?…
And Max Kennerly (I still believe his uncle was innocent!) ha the appropriate reaction:
Max Kennerly: ‘Just one thing Mr. President: was that not apparent to you three days ago when you decided to embroil our country in their dispute?… The most pertinent question, because Trump's reaction here is at least 99% the product of whoever he talked to last, and somebody riled him up about Netanyahu. (Just as somebody else will probably talk him down later today. 🤷♂️):
Craig Ganzer: 'He probably genuinely thought that if he bombed their nuclear sites, Israel would have no reason to keep the war going and he could play peacemaker and win a Nobel for it…
Let me state the obvious: Iis, factually and constitutionally, long past time to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.
The spectacle of a president who, with the regularity of a metronome, parrots the last person who whispered pleasing lies into his ear—only to be surprised, again and again, that these were indeed lies—ought to be enough to convince even the most hardened partisan that we are witnessing cognitive incapacity in real time. This is not a matter of ideological disagreement, nor of policy preference; it is a matter of the basic faculties required to discharge the duties of the presidency.
The American presidency, for all its performative trappings, is not a ceremonial post. He is not King Charles III Windsor.
The American presidency is a node of decision-making in a world where the margin for error is measured not in polling points, but in the lives and livelihoods of millions.
To have at the apex of hte executive branch an individual who cannot distinguish between reality and sycophantic fantasy, who is repeatedly surprised by the consequences of his own credulity, is not merely a constitutional crisis. It is an abdication of the responsibilities of governance. The Founders provided a mechanism: impeachment. It was meant for precisely this scenario, among others. It is time to use it. But the Republican senators will not do that. However, the aftermath of Eisenhower’s heart attacks gave us a kinder, gentler version: the 25th Amendment. But the Republican senators will not do that either.
So here we are.
There is yet a third, stopgap option. The Republican senators—those self-styled guardians of institutional integrity—could walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and tell Donald Trump what is obvious to all: He must find his George Shultz. He must delegate the conduct of foreign policy to an adult, a person capable of making and keeping deals, of distinguishing between the real and the merely expedient, of understanding that the world is not a reality television set populated by easily manipulated extras.
But they have not yet mustered the collective will to do so. I do not expect that they will.
The Reagan administration, in its twilight, stumbled upon the solution: regency, in all but name. Howard Baker and George Shultz ran the show while the Gipper smiled and waved.
It was not ideal, but it was semi-functional.
One might hope for a similar arrangement now, both in foreign and domestic policy—a cadre of grown-ups to manage affairs while the president is wheeled out for ceremonial duties and the occasional photo op.
But—and here is the rub—there are no George Shultzes or Howard Bakers on offer. The Republican Party, having purged itself of seriousness in favor of performative loyalty, has no bench. The institutions that once produced statesmen now churn out cable news personalities, at best. Their modal product is a Twitter provocateurs.
The risks are not hypothetical. The costs are not abstract. We are living, I think, in the long shadow of institutional decay, and the bill is due.
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